Anthias behavior

[dgasmd]

I am curious as to some anthias behavior that I am experiencing. I have about 12 squamipinnis and about 9 barlett anthias. The lyretail started as 12 females and one male. 2 females died eventually and then the male was assassinated. I say assassinated as he was doing quite well and was found torn to pieces the next day. The other fish I had die in this tank have die of unknown causes to me and have all been found with their bodies intact untilt the tiny crabs went to town on them. Over the next few days, I had one of the lyretail female start to turn into a male. The changes have gone on for weeks, but I just noticed a couple of days ago that another female has also turned into a male. They are both fo the same size, now the same colors, and oddly enough to me they don't fight with each other. They do spend most of the day doing their dance and courtship thing with the other females. Upon further examination, I also see that 2 of the female barletts have turned to the brighter colors of mles

Now, it is my limited understanding of the herarchical nature of anthias that a single male will only develop unless the harem is very large. I know there is suppossed to be a dominant female too that will go on to become a male if the male disappears, but I am curious as to why so many males are developing in such a relatively small school. Any ideas?

 

[jlehigh]

Well, you are kind of close to Key-West....

Sorry dgadmd I couldn't resist.. This is very interesting behavior to me. I'll be tagging along.

 

[dgasmd]

I know I am, but the fish don't know it though?

 

[prow]

i have heard of this. do you have any big fish in there. i heard if you put something in there that scares them they tend to stay within the group and dont change sexes as readily.

 

[Illusion]

More than Likely you got the Females and a few were mistaken and had already began the change... Its a possibility that those ones that started to change are just finishing up..

James

 

[NaH2O]

I thought the same thing as Illusion. In the Anthias Compatability thread, Kevinpo posted that sometimes the submales look identical to the females except their dorsal spine is slightly elongated. It could be, like James posted, these were submales mistaken for females, and in your tank, they aren't staying suppressed for whatever the reason? Maybe your tank is just too big , or like prow posted, a larger fish would keep them together and they would be more likely to keep the heirarchy in check. Just some thoughts.

 

[bmtpfgh]

These things are decided by mother nature.The fish don't read the same books that we do,and they don't have a rule book to go by.When the male died,they were both probably equally ready to fill his shoes.It will be great if they don't develope any aggression toward one another.
Do you have any idea what tore up the male?

 

[prow]

These things are decided by mother nature.The fish don't read the same books that we do,and they don't have a rule book to go by.

well i read in a book that fish need oxygen to live. does this rule not work because fish dont read it. somethings happend that cant be explainned. but by reading up we can find find the triggers/influences/conditions that cause this or that to happen. if you want to eliminate or alter the conditions to acheive our goals, we need guidelines or rules to do this. because everything in nature is ever evolving and adapting the rules change with evolution. but that does not mean you should disregaurd the rules already in place. just dont think you should tell people to go at it by way of trial and error. it is neccessary to use the "rules" out there. like corals need light to live in our tanks, corals dont follow rules right, but never the less the rule applies.

 

[bmtpfgh]

I didn't suggest trial and error.Fish breath due to mother nature-not the rule book.People have rules-not fish.

 

[dgasmd]

More than Likely you got the Females and a few were mistaken and had already began the change... Its a possibility that those ones that started to change are just finishing up..

James

You know, this did cross my mind because in retrospect one or two had the slightly longer fins at the top. Their colors were completeyl orange then, so no question that if there was some males they were camouflaged very very well. They still don't have agression to each other. What is going to throw a bigger wrench into this entire thing is that I will be adding another 20-25 female lyretails in a few weeks and add a school of 40-50 green chromis. Barletts will stay as they are in numbers as they
are a little too pricey for me to add another bunch of them.

I don't know who did the male in originally. For all I know it was the 2 unchanged males that went loco comando in the middle of the night.

 

[Maxx]

Alberto,
How are things going now that you've added all of the other fish to the tank?
Nick